1963
First Published
3.47
Average Rating
540
Number of Pages
In this age of burgeoning prison populations, of fascination with details of crime whether by psychopaths or politicians, this re-issue of Christopher Hibbert's classic social history of crime and punishment is timely. The author's immensely readable narrative takes the reader through the lurid story of crime, detection, conviction and punishment. He discusses murder as a lust and murder as a mutilation, torture, lynching and the guillotine, the gallows and the gas chamber; outlaws of the forest and the street; the Surete,Scotland Yard and the FBI; sexual crimes,police corruption and under-age offenders. From the Dark Ages to the measured steps to the reform of penal sanctions of more recent years, this balanced guide to society's ills is a compelling read.Throughout, Hibbert argues that cruel punishments will inevitably have the effect of creating cruelty. There is no book like Hibbert's currently intelligent, wide-ranging and accessible. The issues of crime and punishment and of society's responsibilities in this regard continue to be debated and popular culture seems to be obsessed with crime. Liverpool University reports something like a hundred applicants for every place on its criminal profiling course. Hibbert's engrossing and eminently balanced account has never been more timely.
Avg Rating
3.47
Number of Ratings
17
5 STARS
6%
4 STARS
53%
3 STARS
29%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
6%
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Author
Christopher Hibbert
Author · 47 books
Christopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (5 March 1924 - 21 December 2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads. Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.
